So we tracked down Belle and Cinderella's biological aunt and uncle and our translator friend took a train down to meet them. The aunt is the sister of the girls biological father who died last winter. We learned the father, mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins names! What a great thing for the girls for us to have this info and photos for their life books. So many adopted kids never have any info on their bio family, so they end up feeling empty and disconnected. Aunt and Uncle by their car, coming home from the hospitalThe aunt is definately the leader of the family LOL (glad to see the girls come from such a strong line of women!)and she said that she wished to care for the girls, but due to her illness she is unable to. A German family that has hosted Cinderella 2-3 times also wished to adopt the girls, but they are too old to adopt according to German law. The German couple has met and befriended the aunt and they all worked together to come up with a plan to help the girls once they aged out of the orphanage....of course that plan was based on the assumption that no one would ever adopt the girls. Of course now that we have made contact and told the aunt our intentions, their plan is no longer reasonable. The aunt has not opposed the adoption, but says she must contact the German couple to discuss it since she is an honorable woman and had already made plans with them. Fine with me - I think they all want what is best for the girls, and what is best for the girls is to have a home sooner rather than later (8 years later if they waited until they aged out)We also hope to have Cinderella here in the states for a winter hosting program. We are still working on the details with the host group but we think it would help the aunt and the girls know we are good people and that the girls would have a good home here. We are also tracking the boxes we shipped to SnowWhite and Belle. I know they were put on the ship a week or so ago, and that they should make it to the girls before December. We are also still working on the paperwork for SnowWhite - it is so unfair to her to be stuck in that system for as long as she has and not be registered for adoption. I will finish the trip report hopefully today - we only have Cinderella's part and our last few days in Kyiv to finish.
